Jessica Cuthbertson:
Teacherpreneur,
Aurora Public Schools (CO)
Jessica Cuthbertson teaches English/Language Arts at Vista PEAK Exploratory in Aurora, Colorado. A
twelve-year teaching veteran, Jessica does more than teach middle schoolers: she deeply engages them.
One of Jessica’s students shared this summary of life in her classroom in a short essay: “We are one big
happy and crazy family.” In Jessica’s words, “I’ve never written a discipline referral, sent a kid out of class
and/or otherwise had to call for ‘back up.’ Relationships are the heart of my ‘management’ system.”
“A successful entrepreneur is someone who challenges the status quo and looks at
problems from all angles and is able to see solutions to problems that others may not
always see. Jessica is a teacherpreneur.” – Melanie Moreno, Principal, Vista PEAK Exploratory
Since fall 2012, Jessica has also served as a CTQ teacherpreneur, where she continues to teach each
morning while boldly leading the transformation of her teaching profession in Colorado and across the nation.
She has developed a teaching schedule in which she “loops” with her students for three years, so she can
get to know them and their learning needs better. It shows in their commitment to learning in and out of
classroom and in their respect for one another and their teacher.
Jessica’s administrators and teaching colleagues speak poignantly about her unwavering quest to learn and
grow as a teacher. As a teacherpreneur, Jessica says, “my job is to champion, support and sustain all
teachers in their capacity to lead.” Based on this frame, Jessica spends much of her “teacherpreneur time”
developing a virtual community of teachers in Colorado and beyond to lead a variety of classroom-informed
pedagogical and policy reforms. Over her first two years as a teacherpreneur, her reach was expansive:
Helped her district pilot the controversial state teacher evaluation law (SB 191) while leading reform
conversations to refine the legislation as a tool for improving, not just measuring, teaching effectiveness;
Consulted with Student Achievement Partners, helping reformers better understand teachers’ perspectives on the Common Core State Standards;
Led local and national communities—both face-to-face and virtual—to accelerate teachers’ learning
and leadership; and
Blogged regularly for CTQ and Education Week as well as Chalkbeat Colorado to share stories of her
learning and leadership with other teachers and education stakeholders.
Jessica’s journey to teacherpreneurism
After her first six years as a classroom teacher, Jessica took a role as a full-time instructional coach. She
worked at the building and district levels to support instructional shifts for both novices and veterans, assist
her colleagues in standards-based-grading, and facilitate their collaboration to develop their own formative
assessments for their classrooms.
She was highly effective in this role, but it did not take Jessica long to believe she was not a teacher any
longer, but a different kind of education professional who was losing both her pedagogical touch and her
teaching “soul.” In one of many poignant blog posts, Jessica wrote why she may earn a principal’s license
one day, but does not plan use it in a traditional way:
I left the classroom once, to become an instructional coach, and I didn’t like what it did to my soul. The first
year, I learned alongside the teachers I supported. The second year, I learned some more. But by the third
year, I spent most of my time in classrooms with a pit in my stomach. A growing realization that I was
beginning to forget what it felt like to be a practicing teacher. I was coaching teachers who were grappling
with new standards, new assessments, and new technologies that I had never tried myself as a practitioner.
It felt inauthentic. It felt uncomfortable. And it drove me back to the classroom….
Nonetheless, Jessica didn’t want to feel that she could impact only
the few students for whom she was directly responsible or that
she was isolated and unable to spread expertise to her colleagues.
And she wasn’t alone in feeling that having access to leadership
Jessica isn’t alone in wanting to lead
without leaving the classroom. A 2013
survey from the MetLife Foundation
within and outside of her classroom was the right path for her.
found that half of all teachers have at
least some interest in hybrid roles that
William Stuart, deputy superintendent of Aurora Public Schools
allow them to combine teaching with
other leadership responsibilities, and
(APS), notes:
25% are “extremely or very” interested
She has such energy and expertise. And I am certain she’s a
better teacher now because of her work as a teacherpreneur. In
in such positions. By contrast, three
times fewer teachers expressed a
her work as a demonstration teacher she’s had to be analytical,
and all that she has learned from her CTQ work, shines through in
desire to become administrators—
and the more experienced teachers
everything she does here in the district as well as with our state’s
policy leaders. Her role is so different from other professional
become, the less likely they are to
developers and school reformers who don’t have the everyday
classroom context that Jessica does.
Over the past three years, Jessica has been able to have the best
of both worlds—and APS has been able to make the most of the
full range of her skills—in a hybrid position as a teacherpreneur.
The Center for Teaching Quaiity (CTQ) has reimbursed APS for half
the cost of Jessica’s teaching contract so she can continue to
teach students daily while having time to lead a variety of reforms
and supports for her colleagues.
605 W Main Street : Suite 207 : Carrboro NC 27510
want to pursue a principalship. In
other words, the key to tapping into
more and better school leadership for
the future isn’t setting up an improved
principal pipeline or creating programs
that completely remove our best
teachers from their classrooms. It’s
finding ways to help all effective
educators lead, no matter what title
they hold in their schools and districts.
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Jessica does not have a typical daily schedule other than her set 2.5-hour block of teaching each day, which
runs from 10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. In general, she arrives at school no later than 7:30 a.m., spending her
mornings developing curriculum, assessing student work, and collaborating with her colleagues. On days
she runs her learning lab (see below), she remains at Vista PEAK well into the afternoon.
On other days, Jessica’s teacherpreneurial work might take her to downtown Denver to provide a
practitioner’s perspective on teaching policy to state lawmakers, or to a home office where she writes and
supports colleagues online. Jessica spends much of her teacherpreneur time writing blogs and essays, as
well as developing curriculum for CTQ webinars and leading an online community of teacher leaders
particularly focused on Common Core policy and implementation. She tries not to travel too much, even
though she is in great demand to lead “design thinking” teacher leader workshops, sessions on Common
Core assessments, and the “jurying” of lessons both in Colorado as well as across the nation.
We’re accustomed to thinking of principals
as “the deciders” in a school rather than as
the facilitators of others’ leadership—but
the best administrators are exactly that.
Melanie, like many others, knows that it’s
more than just a management best
practice: it’s a practical necessity for a
school to excel and a building administrator
to sustain her role. The 2013 MetLife survey
found that seven of every ten principals
believed their responsibilities had changed
over the preceding five years, and threequarters of responding principals said their
jobs had become “too complex.” One-third
felt such stress about this that they
reported being “very or fairly likely” to leave
education altogether. And no wonder:
education reforms on everything from
teacher evaluation practices to new
standards for college and career-ready
instruction have been implemented rapidly
in recent years. No solitary leader, however
The impact of leadership grounded
in the classroom
Despite Jessica’s growing national presence as a teacher
leader, her principal, Melanie Moreno, has watched her her
build strong relationships with growing numbers of teachers,
both at Vista PEAK as well as across the district. In her
second year as a teacherpreneur, Jessica began helping
Melanie think differently about professional development in
their building.
For example, over the course of last year, Jessica
orchestrated a variety of “learning lab” structures in her
classroom, hosting teachers from across the district and
externally in partnership with a local non-profit, the Public
Education Business Coalition. Instead of funding full-time
release coaches, Melanie is now supporting time for
teachers to assist each other in a local version of Japanese
lesson study. In the “learning lab” structure, Jessica has
created job-embedded professional learning opportunities
for teachers and administrators, offering a systematic way to
undertake real-time observations and analyze instructional
context as well as pedagogical practices. Over the last year
skilled, could hope to accomplish every
Jessica led three different models involving more than over
100 educators, including some from other school districts.
leadership task in today’s schools. That’s
why engaging more teachers like Jessica as
Melanie believes strongly in the value of Jessica’s
co-leaders within and beyond their
buildings is so essential to meeting every
student’s needs.
605 W Main Street : Suite 207 : Carrboro NC 27510
multifaceted role, which gives her the credibility she needs
with peers to encourage them to connect and grow—but
which she could never have enjoyed in a traditional, full-time
release coaching position:
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“Jessica’s colleagues view her as a masterful teacher and coach and as someone they
can approach with questions or concerns. Jessica quietly helps her colleagues make
huge instructional shifts and to take risks in an accountability climate where it is not easy
to do so. Trust is important because it’s hard to push anyone without them first trusting
you and she had the credibility. And now as a teacher leader with students of her own she
has even more credibility.”
Jessica’s colleagues echoed this praise for how she has been able to maintain her classroom connections
and credibility even as her sphere of influence grows. “She is always about solutions,” Jessica’s colleague
Vanessa Valencia told us. Another fellow teacher, Jessica Sawyer, noted, “We are so swamped as teachers
that if were not for her, we would not have the many professional development opportunities we now have.
She is an inspiration.”
Bridging the gap between practice and policy
American public schools have a long history of failed and forgotten reforms—many of which were well
intended, thoughtfully crafted, and potentially high-impact. But when school policies are made without deep
knowledge of the practices of effective teaching and learning, the best-laid plans can turn out to be
impractical to implement, support, monitor, or sustain. Gradually, some education decision-makers and
teachers are starting to work together to close this policy/practice divide.
Jessica has played a powerful role as a policy advocate in her state. She helped organize testimony to the
state board of education and the legislature and avoid politically motivated roadblocks to new college and
career-ready standards. After Jessica and other CTQ-Colorado teachers testified before the Senate
Education Committee, lawmakers killed the bill. What helped convince them? The teachers made the case
that the standards are important because they require students to think critically, collaborate, and apply their
learning to real-world scenarios.
In her first two years, Jessica routinely collaborated with the Colorado Department of Education and the
Colorado Education Initiative on various curriculum and assessment work group as well as her state and
local teachers’ association, building bridges between the union and the school reform community. And inside
her district, she has worked closely with administrators and teachers in order to integrate 21st-century digital
tools through a 1:1 laptop initiative. Additionally, she was selected as one of a few teachers nationwide to
author a Common Core aligned Literacy Design Collaborative module through a partnership between the
National Writing Project and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She also served on the executive board of
Colorado Language Arts Society, and as project lead for a CTQ Common Core webinar series that
supported hundreds of teachers in navigating the transition to the new standards.
Jessica’s influence in the policy arena goes far beyond those she can meet in real-time settings. She’s a
powerful writer whose work has appeared on Chalkbeat Colorado, Education Week Teacher, and the
Impatient Optimists blog (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). Her Center for Teaching Quality blog also
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consistently garners significant page views and substantial comments from those who connect with her
ideas. Her posts are frequently featured in ASCD SmartBrief and NBPTS Accomplished Teacher SmartBrief.
Leading—and learning to lead—
through relationships
Jessica manages deftly the divergent skills needed
for both classroom teaching and advocacy in today’s
contentious school reform climate; in Colorado, the
business, legislative, bureaucratic, and union claims
compete intensely. She is bright, skilled, unusually
articulate, persistent in her work and professional
growth, and deeply self-aware. Her transformation
from masterful teacher into a teacherpreneurial
accelerator of excellence in her state and district has
also been a result of the support she received.
As a CTQ teacherpreneur, she benefits from weekly coaching conversations that help her plan strategically,
balance multiple priorities, and navigate complex issues and relationships. Other staff have supported her
development as a skilled writer and speaker, and assisted her in placing and marketing her work in state and
national venues. Even more importantly, Jessica was guided in her first teacherpreneurial year by an expert
colleague, CTQ Teacher Leader in Residence Lori Nazareno, who was able to provide connections to key
local stakeholders as well as the invaluable personal support and perspective of one who already had years
of experience in equally nontraditional teacher leadership roles.
In addition to cultivating new skills, Jessica has expanded her professional network, systematically
connecting with influential people and organizations beyond APS. At the same time that Jessica became a
teacherpreneur, she also began serving as an association representative in her building. Amy Nichols,
president of the local teachers’ union in Aurora, is in awe of Jessica’s boundary-spanning communication
skills, and is proud that of her affiliation with the association. “Jessica listens,” Amy said, and:
“… she doesn’t listen to respond, but she listens to hear. …Jessica’s very good at steering
conversations from the negative back to the solutions focus. She’s good at asking
questions without making it feel like she’s questioning your integrity and that’s a huge
piece. Whenever you’re trying to move someone who has a very specific viewpoint, the
worst thing to do is to question whether or not they know what they’re talking about. You
won’t get anywhere with that. Training folks on how to do that is where I’d love to see her
go next.”
Challenges: Shifting the system beyond one teacher’s role
Jessica’s leadership role has not been without its challenges. First and foremost, her influence has been
concentrated among other ELA teachers and within Vista PEAK, not spreading quite as readily to other
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campuses and disciplines. Melanie has her sights on how Jessica’s expertise can be more well-known
outside of the department at her middle school—but most schools are not designed in ways that help
teachers to learn from each other. We met with some of Jessica’s closest colleagues, and we heard many
laments about the lack of time they have to learn from and with her.
As one teacher told us:
I know she writes regular blog posts to celebrate the successes
in her class, as well as the challenges. I know she hosts
webinars to support teachers. I’ve actually participated in some
myself. But too many teachers just don’t know of what she can
offer, plus there is only one of her.
Another noted:
I also think that teachers are always in a mad rush here. It
seems like we’re always doing something that is tossed to us
from the outside. It is no wonder we don’t necessarily take
advantage of having her and her writings.
TE
XT
Read Jessica’s blog
All of the teachers interviewed spoke of 60+ hour weeks. Melanie agreed, telling us that the current group of
Vista PEAK teachers were the “hardest working bunch” she has known. At the same time, Melanie made it
very clear that she and her staff still lacked enough time to accomplish everything they needed to do. In
every interview, we heard of “unprecedented” state mandates that “zapped” energy from administrators and
teachers alike.
Second, like most districts in the United States, APS is just in the early stages of its paradigm shift in how
professional learning is orchestrated. As one district administrator put it, Jessica is “functioning in a system
where we’re just getting used to the idea that the person in charge of professional development may not be
one who has access to the best information, tools, and resources.”
Finally, we learned that not enough is being done to prepare administrators to take full advantage of
teacherpreneurs like Jessica—and the many other teacher leaders who can play roles that have wider impact
without leaving the classroom. APS is certainly not alone in this regard. While many districts are growing
savvier about offering professional learning that makes staff more effective within the parameters of traditional
roles as teachers and administrators, it remains very unusual for professional development to push beyond
those assumptions about what is “teachers’ work” versus the work of other leaders. For instance, few
administrators are supported in learning how to identify leadership strengths among their staff members,
maximize the impact of those strengths by rearranging who executes what work within the school, and
coach a staff as a team of leaders rather than just employees.
Innovative TeacherSolutions
The district has only one Jessica—but that need not be the case, she has argued. Because of her growing
visibility and influence, she has helped senior district administrators shape the conversion of more than 50
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full-time instructional coaches into hybrid “teaching partner” positions in 2014-15, so more teachers can lead
without leaving.
Granted, a number of district administrators believe that every school does not have a teacher leader of
Jessica’s caliber. But they are beginning to see that teachers themselves have many solutions to professional
learning problems they have not solved—and they are starting to recognize how leadership expertise can be
spread among colleagues through roles like Jessica’s. What’s more, they are learning about the power of
virtual connections to accelerate teachers’ growth. Jessica’s colleague Joe Dillion pointed out that because
of Jessica’s role within the CTQ Collaboratory, more district administrators and teachers are grasping the
power of online learning:
Some people here see online learning as fuzzy and they think it’s the Wild Wild West. But having
someone like Jessica here who is great in her classroom and can point to how online professional
learning has helped her—then it really can change perspectives.
As of fall 2014, the next chapter of Jessica’s leadership journey is just beginning. APS has decided that her
help will be invaluable in supporting the new teaching partner positions, and “bought back” a portion of her
released time from CTQ so that she can continue growing learning labs across the district. Importantly,
though, district leaders see it as more than an investment in one teacher’s leadership. Rather, they view it as
a first-step strategy to build more teacher leaders who will strengthen all teachers’ instruction, improve all
schools, and support all students.
A teacher’s work is probably best described not as “teaching,” but as “facilitating learning.” In the same way,
a teacherpreneur is not defined by what she does but by what she does to facilitate others’ leadership. In the
end, the power of Jessica’s story as a teacherpreneur does not only lie in what she has accomplished as an
individual—but in her partnership with colleagues and her district to create schools filled with education
leaders, who together can accomplish the transformation that students and communities deserve.
Published by the Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ), September 2014
TEXT
Interested in learning more about how
CTQ supports districts, agencies, and
organizations to create effective
teacherpreneur roles?
Get in touch.
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